Emphasizing words or phrases

mDash (---), or triple hyphen

An mDash (---), or double hyphen, is used to highlight a phrase; for example, "I went to the market---in Petersburg---to see what the fuss was about." In this case, you are wanting the reader to clearly understand that Petersburg is important.

If read aloud, the reader would read the phrase 'in Petersburg' with a highlighted tone from the rest of the sentence, to draw attention to the phrase.

A double nDash (or four single hyphens) can be used to obscure an obscene word; for example, "It was a d___ shame."

(Parenthesis)

An alternative to the mDash is to use brackets (); "I went to the market (in Petersburg) to see what the fuss was about." In this case, you are not so concerned about the reader understanding where the market was; you are, effectively, de-emphasizing Petersberg.

If read aloud, the reader would read the phrase 'in Petersburg' with the same tone as the rest of the sentence.

Italics

To place emphasis on a specific word (e.g., make it emotive) you can italicize it; for example, "Justin went crazy when he heard about the event."

Underline

Underlining a word or phrase also draws the reader's attention to the emphasis added. However, today, underlining tends not to be preferred in academic writing.

Check your official style guide before using underlining; if in doubt, don't use it.

Exclamation!

Use exclamations (!) sparingly in academic writing to highlight emotion (academic work is meant to be objective, and, therefore, emotion free). For example, "Finally!"